Let us pray. Lord our God, we do pray now. Bless these, your children. These here for whom Christ came and for whom He died. Speak unto them by your word this day. And come unto them by your Spirit, Lord God. And bring unto them the light of their Savior. Yea, Lord, the light of our Savior, and put a new song in our mouths, the song of the gospel of our salvation, that we, Lord God, might sing and be encouraged and upheld in the course of this pilgrimage, which can be so long and wearisome. So, Lord God, we come unto the fountain to drink. We pray, Lord, refresh us in Jesus' name. Amen. Our Old Testament Scripture reading today is from the book of Isaiah, chapter 61, verses 1-3. Hear now the Word of God. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. And our New Testament Scripture reading is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verses 16 through 21. Hear now what is also the Word of God. And so Jesus came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind. to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. In the previous chapter, chapter 60 of the book of Isaiah, God has spoken unto us in a way in which only God can speak. He has spoken of a greater world yet to come, and all its glory. The new heavens and the new earth, and God has spoken there of things of which only God can conceive, and which only God can bring to pass. That's Isaiah chapter 60. And what God is doing in that chapter is by His Word and speaking to us in this manner. He is filling us with excitement about that world to come and about its glory. And He's filling us with a sense of great anticipation of the things which are yet to come. The consummation of our redemption. That we should have this great hope now in our lives. And as we turn now, as it were, the next page to Isaiah chapter 61, and God does something significant. Quite suddenly, He thrusts into the forefront someone else. And as this someone begins to speak to us in the first verses of chapter 61, we see clearly that it is the Old Testament figure of the Messiah, the Anointed One. whom we now know by the light of New Covenant revelation to be our Lord Jesus Christ. And as Jesus speaks to us in these three verses, He declares Himself to be the One that God is sending unto us and to our world to execute the office of Redeemer. And so what God wants here in the movement from chapter 60 into chapter 61, is that having filled us in chapter 60 with all this excitement and all this anticipation and hope about redemption, He now wants us to take all of that, all that excitement and all that anticipation and all that hope of redemption, and He wants us to transfer it all unto His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as our Redeemer. So that our excitement will be excitement about Him. And our anticipation would be anticipation about what He would have done. And all our hope would be hope in Him. That's what God wants now. And I tell you that if you can follow God in this, from the translation of the hope and excitement of redemption, to becoming the great hope and the great excitement in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer, then you begin to become a Christian. This is what it is all about. If you look at the great tree of Christian theology, one of the big branches in that tree is the branch of theology that we call Christology. It's everything that the Bible has to teach us about Jesus Christ. If you follow that branch, the branch of Christology, out just a little ways, it begins to branch. The first major division is the division into the doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ. and the doctrine of the work of Jesus Christ. Under the doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ, we study who Jesus is. And this draws us into the great mystery of His being. The fullness of the Godhead, and the fullness of manhood, united in one person for our salvation. That's the doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ. All that the Bible tells us about who He is. But then there is this other thing to consider. Which is the work of Jesus Christ. All that this extraordinary person, in the execution of the office of Redeemer, actually does. What he has done, what he is doing, and what he will yet do. That's the work of Christ. And the passage before us, Isaiah 61, 1-3, is a passage on that. It's a passage on the work of Jesus Christ. What it is that the Son of God comes to do in the execution of the office of Redeemer. And I would just note, as we have read Luke chapter 4, that Jesus Himself favoured this passage among the Old Testament Scriptures as the one that He would reach for when He sought to declare unto those who were gathered in the synagogue in Nazareth what it was that He had come So it's an early passage on the work of Christ, it precedes Christ Himself by 700 years or so, but a very rich one, and one in which there is much to be learned. As we look at it together now, Isaiah 61, 1 through 3, we see here that Jesus teaches us, we might think of ourselves today as being in that synagogue in Nazareth. That Jesus teaches us here about three things. And as pastors are wanting to do, they all start with the letter A, if that's helpful for you. Jesus teaches us here with respect to His work as the Redeemer. He teaches first about His anointing as the Redeemer. Secondly, about His actions in redemption. And thirdly, about His aim. in and through the redeemed. His anointing as the Redeemer, His actions in redemption, and His aim in and through the redeemed. That's what we're going to learn about today. Let's begin with Jesus Christ's anointing as the Redeemer. Anointing, you understand, is a symbolic bestowal of an office, upon someone, along with all the attendant authority, honor, and responsibility. And in the old world, it was usually an anointing with oil. So we see this. with respect to the kings of Israel, David and Saul. And if you go back and you read the book of 1 Samuel, you'll see Samuel there anointing these men with oil and in doing so bestowing upon them the office of kings, the men that God has chosen for this role. That's an anointing. So here, the one whom God is sending unto us, to execute the office of Redeemer, first, would speak to us about His anointing. And this is what He says in verse 1. He says, "...the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me." Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. So, notice first that this is a Trinitarian verse. This is a verse in which we see all three persons of the Holy Trinity. The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is here the Lord. He is the one who is doing the anointing. The Son is the one being anointed. He is the one speaking in the first person. who says, Me. And with whom does the Father anoint the Son? Well, He anoints Him with the Spirit. That is the Spirit of the Lord God. So, it's a Trinitarian verse, speaking of the anointing of the Redeemer. The Father anoints the Son with the Holy Spirit. The Godhead is there. We also can read of the historic fulfillment of these words in, for example, Matthew's Gospel. Matthew 3, verses 16-17. When did this actually happen in time? And the answer is, it happened at Jesus' baptism. As he entered into the waters of the Jordan to be baptized by his cousin John, something extraordinary happened. And Matthew describes it for us in these verses. He says, when Jesus had been baptized, he came up immediately from the water. And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. You see there again the Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all present for this great moment, the anointing of the Son as the one whom God had sent to execute the office of Redeemer. And I will tell you that as you study the Christology of the Bible, there's a great deal of emphasis actually placed upon this as the beginning. This is an important fact, that Jesus' ministry began with the Father anointing Him with the Holy Spirit. His title, in and of itself, emphasizes it. He is the Messiah in Hebrew, or in Greek, it is the Christ. Those mean the same thing. They mean the Anointed One. That's the title that Jesus bears. It's a refrain in the book of Isaiah, not only here, but earlier. We heard these words with respect to the Messiah in Isaiah 11, 2. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. We heard it again in the first servant song, Isaiah 42, 1. It says there, Behold, this is the Father speaking, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him. And we hear it in other passages in the Old Testament Scriptures as well. For example, Psalm 45, which is clearly a messianic psalm, says of the Son, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. And again, it's reiterated in the New Testament Scriptures as well. The description of the baptism of Jesus first, and then also in commentaries such as this, in John chapter 3, verse 34, we read these words, For he whom God has sent, That's the Son speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands. So, as we follow the branch of Christology out into this subdivision of the work of Christ, this is where it begins. It begins with His anointing. So the big question then is, what's the significance of that? What is the significance of the Father anointing the Son with the Holy Spirit to execute the office of Redeemer? Two things. First, authority is therein bestowed upon the Son. Authority is bestowed in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. God, we see here, sends... God the Father sends the Son with all authority as the one who has been anointed in the Spirit to execute the office of Redeemer. And so it is with that authority and by it that Jesus will do everything necessary to redeem God's people from their sins. He stands forth as a prophet. and with the authority of a prophet reveals God unto us for our salvation. He stands forth as priest and the authority of the priest adorning those robes as one who rightfully wears them to offer a sacrifice for our salvation and plead before the Father's throne for the sake of his people. And he executes the office of a king, as one who is rightfully king, who has been granted that authority, not as a lawyer, but as the lawgiver, the one who can grant the forgiveness of sins, and to open up the gates of heaven unto those who are penitent, and to shut those same gates to those who are Not. So this was a challenge that Jesus faced everywhere that he went during his earthly ministry. Men would say to them, as they did in Matthew 21-23, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? And never once does Jesus have to back down to that challenge. For God the Father had given all authority to the Son and signified it by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That's the first thing that is significant about this anointing. But secondly, Not only authority, but also power is bestowed upon the Son in His being anointed with the Holy Spirit. It's not a mere symbolic anointing, as was the case, say, with the anointing of oil. But the same anointing with which He received authority is the anointing by which He executes with great power all that He does as our Redeemer. So we hear this emphasis in the words of John the Baptist, in John chapter 1 verse 33, after John had baptized Jesus, he said there, I did not know Him, meaning I didn't know that He was the One, the Messiah. He said, but He who sent me to baptize, that is God the Father, you sent me to baptize with water, said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the son of God. So you hear there he received the Holy Spirit and his anointing in order that he might baptize with the Holy Spirit. That is the power with which he redeems men and the execution of his office. And we hear it even more explicitly in Peter's words to the household of Cornelius in Acts 10 38. There, Peter said to those men, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Thank you. who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with them. And this is what we are to understand, that as we see Jesus going forth into the world, healing all these diseases and casting out demons, He is doing it by the Holy Spirit, by the power which He received from the Father in His anointing. So, this is where it begins. It's where Jesus begins as He begins to speak to us, and it's where our Christology begins. It begins with the Christ's anointing as the Redeemer. Secondly, Jesus then goes on to speak about His actions in redemption. His actions in redemption. As He has been now anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit, so the Son is then sent to execute the office of Redeemer. So we look again at verse 1, and we notice there it says, "...the Lord has anointed me to He has sent me two, and so throughout these three verses. The anointing is for the purpose of acting. And it is the actions of the Redeemer that are then described in verses one through three. And I will note four distinct actions here. First, Jesus speaks, in speaking to us here, shows us that the Redeemer is anointed and sent to preach the gospel to poor sinners. The word gospel meaning good news. He's anointed and sent to preach the gospel to poor sinners. So verse 1, to preach glad tidings to the poor. So bring the first point now into the second point. With all authority, Having been granted unto Him and His anointing and with all power, the power of the Holy Spirit at His command. Jesus now steps forward in our world and He lifts up His voice and He addresses Himself to poor sinners. And He preaches this message, God sent me to save you. This is what we see in John chapter 7, in that great scene on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. It says there in verse 37, on the last day, the great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And those rivers of living water are, of course, the gift of the Holy Spirit with which Jesus would baptize men unto their salvation. It's extraordinary. Who else could speak in the manner in which Jesus spoke unto men, as He preached this Good News to the poor? There's nothing like the preaching of Jesus Christ, because of who He is, and because of that with which He has been anointed. The Holy Spirit received from the hand of the Father, and so Jesus Christ, by His preaching unto poor sinners, can give unto them the light of hope, which they in no way could have in the darkness of this world otherwise. If you are a poor sinner today, without hope in the darkness in which you grope in this world, I encourage you to lift up your ears and to hear the preaching of the Son of God who has been sent unto us and anointed with the Holy Spirit and receive in His words which He speaks with all authority, the riches of hope. As He proclaims them unto you as the Messiah. Secondly, the Redeemer is, we see here, anointed and sent to heal the brokenhearted. To proclaim glad tidings to the poor and now to heal the brokenhearted. You see it there in verse 1. And we remember here that as we read the accounts, the fourfold evangelists concerning the life of Jesus Christ, that this is what He did everywhere that He went during the three years of His public ministry. He was healing people, right? He was healing their bodies, he was healing the eyes of the blind, he was healing the ears of the deaf, he was healing the tongues of the dumb, he was healing the legs of the lame. Everywhere he went, he stretched forth his hand, he sent forth his word with all authority, and he healed the bodies of men. We are reminded here, that all of this was ultimate. A sign of the healing which Jesus Christ had come to bring unto the hearts, unto the souls of fallen human beings, such as we are. He had come to heal the brokenhearted, that's what it says. Well, how do you heal a broken heart? The answer that the Bible gives unto us, is that the way that a broken heart can be healed, a broken heart such as yours and such as mine, is by the grace of sins forgiven. That's how you heal a broken heart. We all bear in our souls, friends, the wounds of sins committed. Both our own sins That we know that we have committed against God and we have committed against other people. We bear the wounds of the guilty conscience for those wrongs. And we also bear the wounds of sins that others have committed against us. And sometimes those wounds are deep and just will not heal on their own. And Jesus here says, as He stands forward to execute the office of Redeemer, that He has come to heal those wounds. And I say He comes to heal them by granting the forgiveness of our sins in His blood, as the Father had sent Him to do. And then furthermore, in giving us grace to forgive the sins of others. Bearing. shall our hearts be healed. This duo of our sins being forgiven and then us being enabled to heal, to forgive the sins of others, are often held together in the Scriptures. And it's always in that order. First our sins forgiven, then our ability to forgive others. Ephesians 4.32, Paul says, Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God and Christ forgave you. He forgave you, now you go forgive others. Colossians 3.12-13, again Paul says, Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tinder, mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you. That's how it works. And so I exhort you today. Recognize that unforgiven sin in your life inflicts a daily wound upon your soul. Come unto the Lord Jesus Christ that he might heal you of those wounds. Thirdly, we see here that the Redeemer is anointed and sent also to liberate men from the chains of their oppressors. So verse 1, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Sunday we call the Lord's Day and every Lord's Day It comes around as a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Since that very first Lord's Day, when He rose in triumph from the grave. And I remind you that that day, that first Lord's Day, the Son of God rose from the grave in the power of the Spirit, by which He had been anointed, having paid the ransom for our redemption, that we might be rescued from the hand of the oppressor, to whom we owe the debt that we could not Pay and so it is that as we as we come together on each Lord's Day to remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ to celebrate it So we here we ought to hear the blast of the trumpet of the Jubilee Do you remember what the Jubilee is? Sadly a lot of people began the book of Leviticus and never finish it And one of the one of the problems with that is you never get to the Jubilee because it's in Leviticus chapter 25 We learn there that one of the things that God ordained under the Law of Moses, that after 7 Sabbaths of years, after 49 years and the 50th year, on the Day of Atonement, On the day that the Lamb was sacrificed to atone for the sins of God's people in Israel, a trumpet was to be blast on that day. And hearing the blast of the trumpet, so it was declared, and so men heard, that they were there from that moment forward, released from all debt. Whatever it is that they owed unto another. Even if they had sold themselves into slavery, and they had to be able to to give away their lands and their homes because of the great debt that they were in. So with the blast of that trumpet, all was forgiven. And they were to rise up as free men then and cast off their shackles, and they would return to their homes, and they would return to their lands. And I tell you, brothers and sisters, every Lord's Day now, as we come together to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we do blow the blast, the trumpet of the Jubilee. Or better still, Jesus Christ blows. that trumpet, and we come to hear it. I urge you every Sunday, rise up as free men. Rise up as free men, as those whose sins, whose debts are forgiven, who've been released from the hand of the evil one who once held you, and come with joy, with everlasting singing, to declare the praises of Him who is our Redeemer. And lastly, We see in these verses that the Redeemer is anointed and sent to take away our sorrows and to restore unto us all joy. Verses 2-3. He says, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of Heaven. All this follows upon The proclaiming of the acceptable year of the Lord, which is a reference to the Jubilee. In our homeschool this year, we are in the medieval period in history. So we have been studying, the last few weeks, the legend of Robin Hood. And in the legend of Robin Hood, you remember that Prince John is the villain, he's this usurper of the crown, and he's a wicked man, and he oppresses the people of England, and so it is a time of great sorrow in the land of England. And the thing that I noticed this time in reading Robin Hood is that the real The climax of the story, the resolution of the conflict, doesn't actually come through the brave exploits of Robin Hood. The moment in which the sorrows turn to joy is the moment in which the king returns. The rightful king. Richard, the Lionheart, when he shows up, when he sets his feet again upon the land of England to reclaim his throne, then John is undone and everybody knows it. And that's the point in which all sorrow turns unto joy. And it is the same with us. Brothers and sisters, the appearing of the rightful heir, the Son of God, and His being anointed with the Spirit, with all authority and power to execute the office of Redeemer, as Prophet, Priest and King. His appearing is the moment, setting feet upon the soil. in which we can rejoice, that surely now the usurper, the evil one, who has claimed a throne that is not rightfully his, shall be undone and overthrown, and sorrow shall be replaced with joy." I emphasize here again, what God wants us to do is He wants us to take all our excitement, anticipation, and hope of redemption, and now transfer that all to this person, who is anointed of the Father. to execute the office of Redeemer. If you can follow God there, you begin to be Christian. And lastly, then, as we look at these words, we see not only the anointing of the Redeemer and His actions in redemption, but we see lastly His aim in and through the redeemed. In verse 3, we are shown here that by the redemptive acts of the Redeemer, so the redeemed shall at last be called trees of righteousness. That is an echo of what we heard back in verse 21 of chapter 60, which said, your people shall all be righteous, they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands. So the picture here is the picture of redeemed in the consummate glory of their redemption and the enjoyment of eternal life. They have been planted in that soil and shall never be uprooted again and they're drawing forth from God all the happiness and the fullness of life that shall be theirs in the new heavens and the new earth. So this signifies, then, the Redeemer hitting His mark. If you can think of Him as an archer, the redeemed being called trees of righteousness, the consummation of their redemption, the arrow hits its mark. But as we read on, we see that in hitting that mark in the redeemed, so the Redeemer is also hitting another, higher, more ultimate mark in and through them, the real bull's-eye. And what is that? He goes on in verse 3 and says, this shall be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. And that is what it is all about. This week, this Tuesday, I spent the day at Presbytery among my fellow ministers. And one of the things that I was reminded at this particular Presbytery meeting is that ministers love to talk about their ministry. Give them five minutes in the spotlight. And that's what they're going to speak of. The old men are going to speak of all that they did in ministry. And the young men are going to speak of all that they will do in ministry. And more often than not, any reference to God is reduced to little more than a footnote. And no doubt, if I had my five moments in the spotlight, I would do the same. But it is different with Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ was baptized and anointed with the Holy Spirit, the first thing that the Spirit did was drive him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And one of the things with which the devil tempted the Son of God was with glory. All the glory of the kingdoms of this world he promised unto him. And you remember what Jesus said unto the devil when he was tempted with all that glory. He said, Away with you, Satan. For it is written, We should worship the Lord our God and Him only we shall serve. The point I'm making here is that of all ministers, only Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, is pure in heart. and sufficiently pure in heart that unto Him can be entrusted all of the authority and the honor and the responsibility of the redeemed. Because He alone will at last render all glory to the One who sent Him. Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 24, Paul says, then comes the end. He's talking about how Jesus will defeat all enemies and the last enemy that He will defeat at the final resurrection is the enemy of death. He says, then comes the end when He, the Son, delivers the kingdom to God the Father. Paul goes on and says, now when all things are made subject to Him, that is the Son, then the Son Himself will be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. Nobody else can fill that role. You put anybody else in that role, me or any other minister or any of us here, and we come at last with all that we have accomplished, with all the office of Redeemer, and say, now give it all unto the Father. We will not. But He will. And He does. And that is why Jesus Christ alone is granted the anointing. He's the one that God has chosen and sent to execute the office of Redeemer. This is the kind of stuff that you discover when you venture out onto the branch of Christology. It's a lovely, glorious part of of our religion and the things that the Bible teaches us in this religion. And so the question at the end of any sermon, and this sermon as well, is what is our response? What is our response to the Christology of Isaiah 61-3? And I would say, in closing, two things. One, believe in Him. Believe in Him. When God in the Bible does this, when He thrusts forth His Son into the spotlight, the Son begins to speak in this manner, revelation of His person and His work. The Bible is calling upon us all to believe in Him. And in believing in Him, to receive Him. He whom God sends unto us as the Redeemer, we receive by believing in Him. And when we receive Him, believing in Him, it is that we might rest in Him. That we might rest upon Him alone for our salvation. That is, all our hopes of redemption should become hope in Jesus as the Redeemer. That's the transfer. that needs to happen. When people come to Monroe Presbyterian Church, as a member of Presbyterian Church in America, they want to become members here, they want to be accounted among the number of the brethren, and particularly want to be admitted into the Lord's table as believers, as Christians, they are required to take five membership vows, and among them is this important one. The second membership vow asks, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners? And do you receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel? In this sermon, the reading of this text and the preaching on it, Jesus Christ has been offered unto you in the gospel. But it is not until you believe in believing, receive him. And begin to rest upon him alone for your salvation. That the church can begin to call you, brother. To call you among the number of those who have a place at this table. To this that you are called. And I called you to it. As he has been revealed unto you. to believe in Him. That's the first thing. And secondly, as you believe in Him, those who have believed in Him and received Him, so you should bear witness to Him. You should bear witness to Him. Jesus said unto His apostles before He ascended into Heaven, He said, you shall be my witnesses. And on behalf of the Lord Jesus I say unto you who have believed in Him, you shall be His witnesses. This is something of the service which you owe unto Him, that you should be His witnesses in the world. Well, what do we mean by that? Well, what we mean is that you should now, as a believer, go and live a life of faith. A life of faith in which it is manifest. No matter what your former hopes might have been, no matter what people are putting their hope in around you, that you have come to a place in your life, by the grace of God, that now all your hope of redemption has come to rest upon Jesus Christ and Him alone as the Redeemer. Manifest that by your life and in your words before this world, and you are His witness. And I ask you, if you are a person in this world whose hope has come to rest entirely upon Jesus Christ, all your hope and expectation of redemption has come to rest upon Him alone, shouldn't your life look different? Shouldn't your life look in distinct ways, in particular ways, different from those around you? What would you expect in the life of a person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and has received Him and rests upon Him alone for salvation? One of the things that you would expect is that in the home of that person, Jesus Christ would be worshipped. In the place in which you are most yourself, in the environment in which you have most control. That there would be much speaking of and singing the praises of Jesus Christ. and the home and opening up the scriptures that we might remember the ways in which He has been offered to us in the gospel. I think in families where there are children that we would see a real seriousness in making sure that those children are raised in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, that they would receive a Christian education. So they would come to understand in everything in life that Jesus Christ is there and our hope of redemption. And as those children are given into the hand of marriage when they get older, we would see these people making sure that their children marry only in the Lord. For how can they have any hope in their marriage? And how can their grandchildren have any hope in their marriage? If father and if man and wife are not united in this one great hope. I think you would expect in the life of this man regular attendance at a Christian church. That He would identify Himself with the people who believe the same thing that He believes. And when the Lord's Day comes around, He would rise up with alacrity. And put on His vest and come into the public assemblies to join with His brothers and sisters in Christ. And receiving the praises of the redeemment. And hearing the blast of the trumpet of the Jubilee. And I think that we would expect in this man's life from day to day, a reordering of that life according to Christian principles as a follower of Jesus Christ. This would be what would determine our course. This would be what would dictate our ethic and our understanding of right and wrong. Not what the world says around us, but what the Lord Jesus says to us by His Spirit and through His Word. And I think that you would expect in the life of such a man who truly believes in and receives and rests upon Jesus Christ alone for His salvation, a readiness, a quite natural willingness and eagerness to speak of Him. speak of him, to bear witness to who he is, what he has done, the anointed one, in whom all his hopes have come to rest. Such a life of faith is the Christian's witness to his belief that Jesus Christ is the one whom God has sent. Close with this question. What does your neighbor need from you? When I say your neighbor, I just mean the people around you. What does your neighbor need from you? You say, he needs my love. It is a good answer. Absolutely. Your neighbor needs your love, and that's a great way to think about your moral responsibility to those around you. But I would only add, of all the love with which you love your neighbor, None is more important than the loving witness that you bear unto him of none. Of the one who preaches good tidings to the poor. Of the one who's come to heal the broken heart. Of the one who's come to set free captives. And the one who's come to us as he was sent to comfort the sorrowful. If you love your neighbor by your life and by your words, bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you think about it for just a moment, there's nothing, nothing more loving and more important than you can do in the service of our Redeemer. Let us pray. And now, Lord our God, we pray as we thank You for this lovely passage of Scripture, this profound and wonderful passage of Scripture. We pray, Lord, for the fruit of the preached Word. We pray, Lord, that it would not lay lightly upon us, that it would not roll off our backs like ducks, but rather, Lord, that it would sink into the soil of hearts prepared by your Holy Spirit to begin to grow and thrive and bear forth Christian fruit unto the glory of the Redeemer. So, Lord God, minister unto us in the wilderness. just Lord God, to receive from your hand Christ as our brand, as our nourishment, as our sustenance, and the way in which you are now leading us. All this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.